Detachable wing for half couch casket



' P. BASHUK 2,943,376

DETACHABLE WING FOR HALF COUCH GASKET 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 July 5, 1960 Filed Feb. 6. 1959 Pefer Bus/wk July 5, 1960 P. BASHUK 2,943,376

DETACHABLE WING FOR HALF COUCH CASKET Filed Feb. 6. 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 5 5 Fig. 3 32 'Perer Bas/ruk INVENTOR 7 a BY 48 4.2

Bld W Em n 5:! i l United States Patent DETACHABLE WING FOR HALF COUCH CASKET Peter Bashuk, American Burial Cases C0., 1 Buxton St., Peabody, Mass.

Filed Feb. 6, 1959, Ser. No. 791,666

7 Claims. c1. 27-1 The present invention generally relates to an attachment for a casket which attachment is in the form of wings attached to the upper edges of a casket for increasing the effective area of the casket for display purposes, such wings being detachable and foldable for storage in a relatively compact form.

The primary object of the present invention is to provide an attachment in the form of a wing or supporting ledge detachably connected to the head end and one side edge portion of a casket in opposition to the lid of a half couch casket for increasing the area of the casket for display purposes and generally enhancing the appearance of the casket when open for-display, the attachment being easily attached and removed from conventional casket construction, without any modification of the casket required and the attachment being readily assembled and disassembled and retained in a folded compact form for storage.

In some conventional casket constructions, there is provided drop sides which involves the actual outward pivotal movement of a portion of the walls at the upper r" 7 2,943,376. Patented July 5, 196

Figure 8 is a sectional view illustrating a modified type of clamp for holding the wing to the casket; and Figure 9 is a sectional view illustrating the further modified structure for holding the wing to the casket.

Referring now specifically to the drawings, the numeral 10 generally designates the attachment of the present invention for mounting on a half couch casket generally designated by the numeral 12 which is of conventional construction and which includes the usual head Wall 14, front wall 16, rear wall 18, bottom 20, and a sectional top lid construction 22, the head section of the lid being shown in open position and the lid 22 having the usual lining 24 therein. Also, the interior of the casket is lined with any suitable material such as by lining 26 and may be provided with the usual pads, cushions or the like 28. i

The lining 26 is provided with an extension or drop lining 30 which is normally pulled over the top edge of the casket and is draped down along the outer surface thereof. This lining is employed to cover the attachment of the present invention which extends along the edge thereof for increasing the area of the casket for display purposes. The attachment wings of the present invention will substantially eliminate this construction and will achieve the large open effect without having any sectional construction in the walls of the casket and the problems resultant therefrom.

A further important object of the present invention is to provide an attachable wing element to the casket which is simple in construction, easy to use, well adapted for its intended purposes and relatively inexpensive to manufacture.

These together with other objects and advantages which will become subsequently apparent reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a half couch casket with the wing of the present invention attached thereto;

Figure 2 is a transverse, vertical sectional view taken substantially upon a plane passing along section line 2-2 of Figure 1 illustrating the details of construction of the wing and the manner in which it is attached to the casket;

Figure 3 is a bottom view of the wing;

Figure 4 is a side elevation of the wing;

Figure 5 is a transverse, sectional view taken substantially upon a plane passing along section line 5--5 of Figure 3 illustrating the structural details of the wing;

Figure 6 is a transverse, vertical sectional view taken substantially upon a plane passing along section line 6-6 of Figure 3 illustrating further structural details of the wing;

Figure 7 is a side elevation of the wing showing the same in folded form;

top edge of the head wall 14 and the front wall 16 to the extent of the opening defined by the head lid section.

The wing includes a pair of rigid board members 32 and 34 which are longitudinally aligned and longitudinally spaced. The board 32 may be shorter than the board 34 with the area between the boards being flexible thus enabling the portion of the attachment 10 having the board 32 therein to be disposed along the top edge of the head wall with the other portion of the attachment 10 extending along the top edge of the front wall. The board 32 is provided with a pair of U-shaped clips 36 secured thereto by fasteners 38 and the board 34 is provided with a pair of similar U- shaped clips 40 secured thereto by fasteners 42. Encircling the boards 32 and 3 4 is a covering of flexible cloth cloth or plastic 44 filled with a cushioning material 46 which may be any desired cushioning material or. may not be resilient but which fills the covering 44, and the shape of the cover 44 is such that when it is filled with the cushioning material, the device is substantially semi-cylindrical in transverse cross-section with the cover 44 enclosing the entire device and only the clamps 36 and 40 extending therebelow.

The clamps 36 and 40 will clampingly engage the upper edge of the front wall.16 and the head wall 14 thus detachably mounting the attachable wing 10 on the casket and the drop lining 30 may then be pulled out over the cushion formed by the wing as illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 thus providing an increased area on the casket for display purposes.

For maintaining the wing iii in stored position, there is provided a cylindrical lug 48 on the board 34 intermediate the clips 40 and laterally spaced therefrom whereby the wings may be folded into substantially U-shaped configuration with the outermost clip 36 en gaging the lug 48 thus maintaining the device in the position illustrated in Figure 7 for ease of storage in a compact space.

While spring clips have been illustrated in Figures 1-7, it is pointed out that U-shaped clamps 50 may be used which U-shaped clamps or C-clamps have a clamp bolt 52 extending through one leg thereof for clampingly engaging the walls 16 of the casket 12 (see Figure 8), the clamps 50 being secured to the boards of the wing in any suitable manner.

Figure 9 illustrates another modified form of the invention in which the front wall 16 is provided with a socket 54 receiving a depending peg 56 on the wing board, with the peg or projection 56 being secured thereto in any suitable manner.

taching the wing thereto and the wing may be readily removed after display and prior to closing of the lid so-that the wing may be used over and over again and may be stored in a compact form as illustrated in Fig ure 7.

The foregoing is consideredas illustrative only of the principles of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilledin the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to: the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention as claimed.

What is claimed as new is as follows:

1. A wing attachment for horizontal upper edges of the front wall and head wall of a casket, said attachment comprising a horizontally elongated cushion member'of flexible material having a normally straight form, a pair of horizontally elongated rigid members disposed longitudinally in the base of said cushion member and having spaced adjacent ends whereby an intermediate portion of the cushion member between the spaced. adjacent ends of the rigid members may be bent so that the cushion member is of a substantially L-shaped horizontally disposed form, and means carried by said rigid members and projecting below the cushion member 'for engagement with upper edges of the front and head walls of a casket, whereby to retain the wing attachment in position.

2. The device as defined in claim 1 wherein said means comprise resilient clamps secured to said rigid members and adapted for frictional engagement with the casket walls:

3. The device as defined in claim 1 wherein said means comprise keeper pins projecting downwardly from said rigid members and adapted for insertion-in apertures formed in upper edges of the casket walls.

4. The device as defined in claim 1 wherein said means comprise inverted U-shaped clamps secured to said rigid members and adapted to engage upper edge portions of the invention, the area of the casket may be increased forpurposes of display by atcasket walls, and wall clamping screws provided in said clamps.

5. The device as defined in claim '1 wherein said means comprise clamps secured to said rigid members and adapted for retaining engagement with upper edge portions of the casket walls, said cushion member also being bendable at said intermediate portion thereof to an inoperative position wherein the end'portions of the cushion memher are superposed, and means for retaining the cushion member in its inoperative position, said last mentioned means comprising a keeper element provided on one of said rigid members and engageable by one of said clamps on the other rigid member.

6. The combination of a casket having a front wall and a head wall with horizontal upper edges, and a wing attachment comprising a horizontally elongated cushion member having a normally straight form and including a filler strip of flexible cushioning material, a pair of flat rigid-and elongated base members disposed longitudinally at the'underside'of said filler strip and having spaced adjacent ends, and a covering of :flexible material enclosing {said filler strip and said base members, the spacing of ithe adjacent ends of said base members permitting said cushion member. to be bent into a substantially L-shaped. form and supported with said base members resting on said upper edges of the respective front and head 'wallsof said casket, and means carried by said base members and projecting below the cushion member, said means supportably engaging the upper edge portions of saidcasket walls whereby to sustain the wing attachment in position.

7. The combination as defined in claim 6 wherein said means comprise inverted U-shaped clamps secured to said base members and straddling the upper edge portions of the casket walls.

References Citedin the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,509,159 Lundberg Sept. 23, 1924 1,977,584 Hansen Oct. 16, 1934 2,250,704 Donnelly Jan. 22, 1938 2,652,863 Grabinski Sept. 22, 1953 

